From the December 21, 1972 edition of The Wayne Herald
Santa Claus comes early to Macy
Santa Claus drove a car and came several days early for some young Native American children in Macy this week.
Santa was played by five students at Wayne State College who spearheaded a drive which resulted in collecting three car loads of food, toys and clothing for Omaha Native Americans in need in the Thurston County community.
The students were members of a class studying minorities at WSC, and they took on the project last week after one of them read a newspaper story about how bleak this Christmas will be for some of the Native Americans at Macy.
Jerry Van Moorleghem, a sophomore from Omaha, read a story last week and mentioned it to his class, taught by James Evans.
Before the day was out, plans were underway to collect things to make the Christmas a little bit brighter for both children and adults at Macy.
"The response we got was outstanding," he said. "All the people in Wayne were very cooperative, and we could have collected a lot more if we had more time and better organization."
Despite the shortness of the drive and the little advance work, the students collected boxes upon boxes of everything from tiny red hard hats for children to games to canned food to warm clothing for children and adults.
